However Kevin Myers, the deputy chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive, who was actually at the gig, said it was not true to blame the end of the show on those grounds.

He said: ''The fans deserve the truth. There's no health and safety issues involved here. While public events may have licensing conditions dictating when they should end, this is not health and safety.

''It's ironic that this excuse has been used in relation to Bruce Springsteen, who certainly knows what real health and safety is all about - look at the words of Factory from Darkness On The Edge Of Town referring to the toll that factory work can take on the health of blue-collar workers.''

Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform on stage during the second day of Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park in London (Getty Images)

The show was licensed until 10.30pm by the council, which has cut the number of concerts to be staged in the park from 13 to nine from next year.

Westminster Council said it was the concert organisers, rather than the local authority, which brought the gig to an end.

Organisers released a statement in the wake of the sound being cut at the climax of the Springsteen show.

It said: ''It was unfortunate that the three-hour-plus performance by Bruce Springsteen was stopped right at the very end but the curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public's health and safety.''

Springsteen had been joined on stage by Sir Paul McCartney but neither star had the chance to thank the crowd.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said yesterday: ''It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision.

''If they'd have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord.''